Palliative care provides relief from the pain, stress and other debilitating symptoms of chronic and terminal illnesses.

Unlike hospice care, which focuses on comfort care at the end of life, palliative care continues to provide treatment regardless of life expectancy.

It can be delivered at any stage of an illness and alongside conventional treatments that are meant to cure the patient, such as chemotherapy.

Persons who may benefit from palliative care include those with:

Cancer

Congestive Heart Failure

HIV/AIDS

Kidney Failure

These patients often experience pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, and nausea, among other symptoms. Palliative care helps to manage the pain, assists with communication and arranges for services.

Palliative Care at Home

When you receive palliative care at home, our nurses and physicians can eliminate the need for hospital visits.

For example, a person with chronic lung and heart disease had repeatedly been admitted to the hospital and was enrolled in our home care program. The next time that she became ill, short of breath, and felt the need to go to the hospital, she called the palliative care team.

The team nurse instructed her to take the medicine that had been placed in her home should a change in health occur. When the nurse arrived, she took the patient's vital signs, examined the patient, adjusted several medications, and worked to find the trigger.

A doctor who had been communicating with the nurse also went to the patient's home on the same day. The patient stabilized quickly. Her daughter said, "We would have gone to the hospital, but the program allowed her to stay home."

Because of the home visits by the palliative care team, a previously overlooked trigger to her illness was identified, and a social worker and spiritual counselor worked with the patient to address that trigger.

Arranging for Palliative Care

If you are living at home (not admitted to a hospital) and would like palliative care services, please contact our home care division at (716) 685-4870 and request to speak with the Palliative Care Clinical Manager, who can guide you in your next steps.